As Coldplay brought the climax to the Paralympic Games to the world, the British public exhaled a mighty sigh of sadness that the end was now here. The 12 days that filled the competition were record-breaking as well as extraordinary. Public perceptions were changed, awe-inspiring stories told, stadiums filled to the rafters, all in the name of a mega-event that had for so long lived in the mighty shadow of its brother. Not anymore. Britain showed the world that we were just as interested and supportive of the Paralympic Games as we were of the Olympics. It did not matter that these athletes suffered impairments (although at times it made things even more incredible), because they were the elite. They were the best, and they were determined to achieve the best their body’s capabilities allowed them to do so.
Once again, the British team eclipsed themselves in a magnificent manner. Collecting 120 medals, 13 more than their target set, somehow still only positioned themselves third in the medal table (due to a slight drop in gold medals compared to Beijing), but my, how that cared little, when some of the achievements were brought into question. Sarah Storey and David Weir both captured four gold medals each. Storey’s quadruple taking her overall Paralympic haul to eleven, tied at the top in the modern era with Tanni Grey-Thompson and Dave Roberts. This has come after changing sports as well. Initially a swimmer, she has since discovered her greater talents are on the bike and she absolutely killed her opponents. Each time she beat the same female to gold but she beat her by crushing margins – lapping her or by time gaps that were unfound anywhere else within the field. You can certainly see why she nearly made the Olympic cycling team, and it would surprise nobody I think if she was with them in Rio as well as defending her Paralympic crowns.
Weir was another man on wheels, but this time it was a wheelchair as he competed in athletics. Now the distance and physical requirements for the 800m compared to the marathon vary considerably. However, Weir proved that in the space of the Games he could qualify through heats and win the finals of the 800m, 1500m, 5000m and marathon. That is masses of wheel turning, huge endurance and incredible strength, both physically and mentally. The man was a machine, spurred on by the British public as he was involved in some of the tensest and exciting races of the Games. Every time he headed into the home straight, you felt it was his to lose, but there was still that opportunity it could happen, particularly in the latter races when, understandably, the fatigue must have been setting in. But in the end, the Weirwolf of London was certainly howling with delight!
As spoken about last week, Ellie Simmonds once again became an inspiration for women, whilst track and field found a new star and potentially the start of the end for the man that has until now been the flag-bearer for Paralympic sport. Firstly, Johnny Peacock, destroyed the field in the T44 100m, the top-billing of the Paralympic Games. He got close to his own world record but in the end settled for a record in the Games as he swept the field aside. The man had complete control of everything, as even when the crowd got excited at the start, he managed to quiet them all down to silence. 80,000 people falling silent at your actions, wow. Coming in fourth in that race was a certain, Oscar Pistorius. The South African has been an incredible Paralympic champion and even managed to achieve a dream by competing in the Olympics as well this summer. Maybe that hampered his performance later on as he only took his imperious 400m title once again as well as the 4x100m relay. His 200m defeat was the shock of the Games and was followed by a slightly aggrieved outburst against the champion, Oliveira from Brazil, whom he claimed had a significant advantage with his blades. Now for somebody, like Pistorius, who has gone through an awful lot of interrogation regarding the technology in his blades when he first burst onto the scene, to now be talking about the technology in use does seem rather ironic, but also displays how much the world of Paralympic sport has developed in such a short space of time.
Pistorius’ little outburst may have been the most talked about of the Games but it certainly wasn’t the most aggressive. Step forward Jody Cundy, Britain’s cyclist, who after being controversially disqualified from a race he was expected to win gold in, went on a loud outburst towards the officials, which was audible throughout the stadium and on TV. It wasn’t particularly pre-watershed friendly either! He later apologised for how he acted, but the manner he adopted really underlined how important these Games were for individuals and how they had dedicated just as much hard-work and graft to the cause for the past four years just as the Olympic athletes had. Even now, some of the images I saw make me go “wow” – seeing a one legged high jumper clear huge heights, watching a blind long jumper hit the board perfectly, witnessing the carnage and desire to win by those involved in ‘murderball’. All of these individuals had worked incredibly hard to be there, to be the best they possibly could, to be elite athletes and respected as being that. These Games accomplished that, these Games showed that no matter what card you are dealt with in life, if you want to go out and try and be an elite athlete, then the opportunities are there if you apply yourself the correct way.
The Olympics and Paralympics have never been more parallel in my eyes. Kirani James kicked it off by swapping race numbers with Oscar Pistorius in their Olympic 400m heat. But then the British public filled the stands wanting to see elite sporting prowess displayed their love for the Paralympics – 2.7million tickets were sold, far exceeding expectations and culling concerns of empty stadia. The volunteers once more were superb, receiving all he plaudits that they deserved, and ensuring everyone’s day out was good, if not excellent. Many of them only signed up to the Paralympics after they had done the Olympics. As I have put to you all in this blog before, how people can now turn around and say that hosting these Games the past month or so has been a bad decision truly astounds me. Lord Coe and his team at LOCOG, deserve tremendous credit, as everything has gone as well as it could have done I would say. The come down now is going to be one hefty bump, but I do hope that the positive vibe that is currently being emitted lasts for a good while to come. Thank you Britain.
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